ceccia

The other day I encountered a patient with an aggressive family - I got the feeling that they perhaps are scammers looking for some kind of payout, based on the way they were acting. At one point the patient's son took out his phone and started filming the medication tech while the daughter-in-law grilled me with questions that really should have been directed to the MD (which I repeatedly stated, and offered to tell the MD that the family is requesting to talk with him). We were both uncomfortable being filmed in the patient's room, but unsure whether we had the legal right to refuse being recorded, and/or to decline giving treatments until they stopped filming us. Does anyone know of any resources that explain the legality of patients/families recording in a hospital setting? Does it vary by state? Do you have experience with patients and/or their families wanting to film or record you at work?

this, and also from my observations most people who are top earners and love what they do have uber-specialized skills/training, are great at what they do, *and* there aren't many people who can do exactly what they do. Nurses are a dime a dozen. Nurses with specialist certifications generally get paid more and have more opportunities but still there is a ton of supply so there is no "need" to pay more.

Most of the time, people will straight up tell you what they are seeking and what the purpose of their OP is. I see a lot of topics where the OP says something like "i made this mistake /did something wrong; now what should i do?" and then a pile-on of people berating the OP for what they already did, lecturing them on how stupid they were, etc. How is that helpful? It's not. Then when the OP says it's not helpful and not what they asked for, everyone gets all "but you asked for advice! this is the internet, i can say anything i want; don't say anything if you don't want my unhelpful word vomit in reply!" If the OP says they're already beating themselves up and have regrets and they are looking for encouragement and ideas on how to move forward rather than another useless lecture, and then you give them a useless lecture, come on! Have some self control and if you don't have anything actually helpful to say, don't bother. Another frequent one is an OP asking for advice on how to do something (transition into a diffcult-to-enter specialty area without a lot of experience, get a hospital job as a new grad, get a new job with a less-than-stellar employment history, etc.) and getting replies of "you can't". Fail! Not helpful. No wonder people started putting "no negative replies please" in their topics. The OP didn't ask for a chorus of negativity; they want to know if anyone has any creative, out-of-the-box ideas for accomplishing what they want which they may not have considered or may not know about. If you can't give someone what they're asking for, then you don't have anything of quality to contribute and you should click out of the topic without saying anything. Same with topics about conflicts with a manager, co-workers, and/or patients. Assuming the problem is really the OP and replying as such is useless. If you can't put yourself in the OP's shoes, or you feel too close to the issue (i.e. if you're sensitive about negative attitudes toward older nurses and someone complains about a co-worker who is older), check your biases before you reactively accuse the OP of being the problem.

just go for physical therapist assistant. two years at a community college and you graduate with little to no debt. PTA's don't actually make that much less than PTs in most markets. In my city PTAs make about 75% the pay of PTs, without the student loan debt.

that does help; thank you. this is one of my housemates and i looked at the contract, and yeah it is very one-sided, and the penalties for cancelling or getting cancelled are vague and not at all spelled out. she's been having random episodes of passing out as well as seizure-like activity, and basically feels worn out all the time because of it. at this point she said she honestly doesn't care if she gets paid for any of the work she's already done, she just wants to be done, and is only afraid of being dragged to court or fined amounts that are even higher than her earnings from the job.

i know. what was your experience with breaking a contract (and/or having one cancelled by a facility)?

i edited to clarify no specifics are in the contract re: penalties and cancellation. Not in company-provided housing. they expect to forfeit any housing /per diem stipends and have paychecks withheld. but how likely is the agency trying to charge the traveller fees in excess of what they actually earned on the job?

i'm asking for someone else, so will try to give more info without being overly specific. recent health issues, has been off of work for all of last week (with dr's note) and no improvement. guessing the hospital is going to cancel the contract. the only concern is financial (fees, penalties, etc - no dollar amounts or specifics re:cancellation mentioned in the contract).

has anyone here worked as a travel nurse and had to break a contract early? What was your situation and what were the consequences?

unfortunately not quite. :/ flu shots contain egg protein, and depending on the type are incubated either in egg or mammal/insect cells.

also along those lines, for individual nurses: say you work 3 shifts a week and are paid $25/hr. If you don't take a lunch AND don't get paid for that 30 minutes, you're giving your employer $37.50 /week of work for FREE. If you work 50 weeks a year (we'll assume the other two weeks you're on vacation), that's $1875. Almost $2k! What could you do with an extra $2k in your bank account? I sympathize with the PP's coworker who would always insist on taking her breaks. The only way to affect real change, though, is if *everyone* has the guts to stand up and fight *together*.

better yet! i signed a contract to play with an orchestra. :)

using your first name (if indeed Ruby is your first name) on here is probably a bad idea as well.

Violinist and violin teacher. I went into nursing because after conservatory training i allowed my parents to convince me that no one makes a living in the arts, blah blah blah. I hated nursing ever since my first day job-shadowing. tomorrow is my last shift as a nurse! :)

I will give patients whatever they want, as long as the physician has ordered it and their vitals check. because i do not have the energy to deal with whiners all day every day. you can explain to these people until the cows come home, why it's not ideal for the drug seeker to have all the narcs, or the 400-lb patient to have a pile of freaking donuts and a soda, or why the lazy ass who spent the past 30-40 years living the typical American lifestyle and now has a host of entirely-preventable "lifestyle diseases" should get out of bed before noon for therapy...it will just go in one ear and out the other. so why bother.

what the ****. people like that should be thrown out into the street. unfortunately since that's not an option, you can probably easily get her to "fire" you. Next time she starts acting like a rude POS to you, let her know very clearly and enthusiastically that she has the right to request another CNA. Offer to get the charge nurse for her so she can make the request official. Repeat the offer as needed, every time she says or does something nasty to you. "Remember, you have the right to request a different CNA! You're obviously not satisfied with me, so why don't I get my boss in here and you can tell her you want someone else."

This may be one of those things that varies depending on practice setting (and possibly geographic location as well?) I found it was easier to get PRN work than FT as a new grad; I had several offers for PRN within weeks of graduating but no FT offers. This is all in SAR and assisted living btw. I imagine new grads don't get hired for PRN in acute care /hospital as that's totally different. Another option for the OP is seasonal work. Try a flu clinic!

so management apparently thinks now is a great time to randomly make people take urine drug tests. i don't take drugs, but one of my co-workers told me that if large amounts of ketones are in my urine sample it will look as if i've been drinking alcohol on the job. that doesn't make sense imho. there are so many other reasons why someone might have elevated ketone levels - diabetes, or a ketogenic /low carb diet (this is why i was wondering out loud about what happens if they test and find high ketone levels; i've been doing so i wanted to ask, is this a real thing? would they really accuse me of drinking at work because of elevated ketone levels in a urine test?

why is everyone making it sound like you have to choose? Look for PRN positions with several facilities instead of a full-time job. :)

I hope you don't actually talk like this to your co-workers. it sounds condescending, and it sounds like you're reading from a scripted corporate manual instead of attempting to have a real conversation with a peer.

it's very sweet of you to be concerned about your patients being able to celebrate their holidays while sick. tbh though, i cannot imagine ever having time to help anyone celebrate anything at work because i have an absolutely inhuman load of work to do.

"every day, another day closer to the day i never have to do this again". it's a quote from a quirky British indie film called I Really Hate My Job.

I think you'll be okay, actually. :) the past week or two has been rough because you've been working everyday on orientation! you said you'll probably work ~ 1 shift a week after you're off of orientation, and that will be worlds different from working everyday (or even multiple times per week). your husband should absolutely be willing and able to care for his son one morning a week while you sleep after your shift. i can understand his frustration at having to look after the kid every day until naptime, if that is supposed to be his work time. it is hard to be self employed working from home because people don't realize you need to be on a schedule and you need un-interrupted time. if i had a dollar for every time someone didn't respect my need for consistent work time, and assumed i would be available to do whatever on a moment's notice because "you can just work later /anytime since you work from home", i'd be lounging on a beach on my own tropical island right now. but there is a massive difference between five days a week and one day a week. if your husband isn't willing to let you sleep un-interrupted and watch the kid once a week then he is selfish. there is always the option of having a babysitter for a few hours during the day if you are trying to sleep and he needs to work.

wow, that IS rude! ugh. i had this problem with CNAs speaking Spanish all the time. Now, I don't speak Spanish aside from a few common phrases, but I could understand a lot more than they thought, because I speak fluent Italian which is probably the closest romance language to Spanish. The CNAs would switch to Spanish when they wanted to ***** and talk trash about other people. One day two of them were helping me put a 400-lb woman on a bedpan, and they started calling her a pig and saying how disgusting she was and that you'd have to pay someone a lot of money to have sex with her. The look on their faces was freaking hilarious when i said to them - in Spanish! - 'you know i understand everything you say, right?' they looked like they were about to **** themselves! Then I lied and told them (in English) that almost everyone who works here understands Spanish, and that *everyone* has been hearing and understanding everything they've ever said to each other on the floor. One of them turned so white i thought she was going to pass out. Since then, they've magically decided it would be in their best interests to speak English at work. :)

technically, yeah. but most of the shifts in question are right around the holidays (i.e. Christmas Eve, the day after, the weekend after, New Year's Eve/Day, etc.) I would feel like an ass calling and just cancelling all of those hard to fill shifts. And I would love to think that I will never have the need to return to a nursing job ever again after this month, but just in case my life turns to complete **** at some point in the future, I don't want to get a bad reference from this place.